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When you own or manage a hotel, you naturally want to get more bookings regularly, whether it’s peak or non-peak season. Many factors come into play when inviting people to book your hotel. Similarly, there are also multiple factors to look into when facilitating the bookings itself.
Over the past several years, booking a hotel room has become so much easier for both hotel owners and customers. Thanks to the Internet, anyone can easily reserve a room online and get good deals for doing so.
In terms of online bookings, there are also several options and methods available. A customer can book at the hotel’s website directly if the hotel has a website with such a feature. Meanwhile, the manager of a hotel may choose to partner with a third-party booking website or platform. Customers can also book with travel agents or buy discounted deals from deal sites.
Indeed, all of these options provide different levels of convenience for customers. Despite that, which do you think benefits you as the hotel owner?
Direct hotel bookings increase profit because you get commission-free bookings. Additionally, you are likely to get reviews through your website rather than on a third-party platform.
Read on as we give you tips on getting more direct bookings by attracting online users to your website.
1. Design a user-friendly booking interface.
Your website should have a booking tool that’s engaging enough to keep the guest on your site and let them complete a booking with little-to-no challenges. A customer should be able to finish booking a room within just a few clicks.
2. Prioritize security and privacy.
You should use the best security features as much as possible. This gives customers peace of mind, knowing that their transaction and details are in good hands. This is particularly important if you allow online payments.
3. Consider social media booking.
Facebook, in particular, allows the addition of apps to Pages. It will be great if you can integrate a booking engine to your Facebook Page. After all, many users might find you through social media.
4. Put clear call-to-action buttons in place.
Once your target customers find your website, you want them to know that you have a booking engine on-site. You can do this by having clear and noticeable call-to-action buttons in the right places. These CTA buttons will help your potential guests find your booking engine and guide them through the booking process.
5. Get rid of items and issues that might compromise your website’s usability.
When your customers’ user experience is affected by anything that could slow down or hinder the booking process, they might be discouraged to proceed with the booking. As a result, they might try booking through a third-party agent or forget about booking at all.
6. Optimize your website and social media pages.
Having a user-friendly website with a functional booking engine will be for nothing if your target customers can’t find your website and social media pages. Make sure that you optimize your content well, using specific, localized keywords related to your business.
7. Try other marketing techniques.
Consider working with social media influencers to promote your hotel. You may also collaborate with other brands.
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